If I were to ask you to list fashion’s most impactful moments from the past 100 years, you might be inclined to go with Coco Chanel’s Little Black Dress. Or you might point to 2010, when Lady Gaga turned up to the MTV Video Music Awards wearing a dress made entirely of raw meat. Both are good answers. But what about Louis Vuitton’s 2019 Prestige skin, worn by Qiyana in the online video game League of Legends? Or last year’s Balenciaga Fortnite hoodie? If the latter two sound as though they’ve been pulled from the depths of a fictional universe, that’s because they have—sort of.
What these items represent is fashion’s early entry into the world of digital fashion. The Louis Vuitton skin is designed to be worn by your avatar within while the Balenciaga hoodie is part of a collection of items that can game and purchased IRL. These may sound like marketing gimmicks to engage the next generation of consumers with luxury fashion. But they also signify fashion’s expansion beyond the physical world and may hold the key to making the industry more sustainable, inclusive, and fun.
